SCREAM by KEVIN WILLIAMSON [OUTLINE]

Slasher outline.

Interesting... None of the characters are pursuing the mystery too aggressively. 

The AUDIENCE MEMBER is the only person really trying hard to figure this out. The audience member also has access to more clues than anyone else. Script has strong control over what audience sees and does not see. Some might say it's manipulative but that's the point. That's how you tell a scary story. 

​SCREAM OUTLINE

1. KITCHEN
Someone calls CASEY. Three times. Odd convo. Says “I want to know who I’m looking at.”

Note: Visual cues are used to underscore creepiness and her vulnerability. “Pitch black outside.” Stuff like that. 

Also like the use of (pure evil) as a wryly.

2. Casey gets more calls. Reveals she has a boyfriend. Looks outside. Steve is tied up and beaten in a chair. 

3. Killer quizzes Casey. If she gets the scary movie trivia right, Steve lives. She gets it wrong. Steve is gutted.

4. Lawn chair through the door. Man enters house. Casey hides.

5. Casey outside. Headed toward the front yard. Looks in the windows. Sees Man. He reaches through glass and grabs her.

6. Casey stabbed on lawn. Mom and Dad come home. Don’t see her. 

7. Mom and Dad inside. Getting worried. 

8. Mom and Dad outside. Casey is hanging from a tree. Gutted.

BLACKOUT.

BEGIN MAIN TITLES. 

[THAT WAS 18 PAGES]

NOTE: THE ‘TEASER DEATH’ SHOWS SOMEONE VULNERABLE BEING KILLED. THAT HEIGHTENS EVERYTHING FOR THE MOVIE. SHOWS HOW HEARTLESS THIS KILLER IS. 

9. Meet Sydney Prescott. Working at her computer in her room. 17 years old. “Sharp and clever with deep, lonely eyes.” Hears a noise. Walks toward a window. 

10. Sid grabbed through window. It’s just BILLY LOOMIS. Some guy. 

This is a JUMP SCARE. 

SIDNEY PRESCOTT a young girl of 17, sits, her face glued to the computer monitor in front of her. 

CLOSE ON her face. Sharp and clever with deep, lonely eyes. She’s comfortable in a plain, flannel nightgown. Her bands are at. work, typing feverishly, when suddenly ••• CRASB--BOOM 

A noise behind her. She turns abruptly, eyeing an open window across t.he room.

A SCRATCHING sound. She stands and moves toward it.

EXT. ~ Sidney sticks her head out the window. The late night wind bits her face as a SHADOW appears just to the left of her, a band reaches out, grabs her and suddenly a FIGURE is on top of her…

INT. BEDROOM Sid SCREAMS…pulling away from the FIGURE… breaking free, falling back onto the floor. 

11. Dad comes in. Says he’ll be gone until Sunday.

12. Billy says he wants more steam in their relationship. Pressures her a little but is good natured kind of.  He was watching the exorcist and decided to sneak over. 

13. Sidney awoken by her alarm. 

JUMP SCARE 2
CLOSE on Sidney snuggling her pi8llow, sleeping peacefully when…

THE RADIO ALARM BLASTS from the night table loud enough to wake the dead. Sidney bolts up. 

Radio about a dead body found but Sidney switches it right off.

Sid watches her dad leave. 

14. News vans and cop cars outside a perfect small town high school.

15. Sid watching reporters. TATUM walks up. Chats about the killings. Says this is even worse than… (trails off — cool little creepy hint at something here)

16. Sidney in class. Teacher discussing tragedy. Cop pulls Sid out. Her turn for questioning. 

17. PRINCIPAL’S OFFICE. Lots of cops. Discuss Sidney because she’s next. More odd secret talk…

“She was daughter of…”

“She’s adjusted well. Maintains an A average. You’d never know she…”

18. OUTSIDE. Meet the gang. Tatum, Stu, Randy, Billy, Sid. Discussing if the killer was male or female. Discussing the gutting. Referencing scary movies throughout. Callous joking. Sidney does not like it at all. 

19. Sidney gets home from school. “The house looks big and lonely as Sidney moves up the walk to the front door.”

20. Bedroom. Sid talks to Tatum. Tatum says she can stay over. Sid says? “It’s just the police and reporters…it brings it all back.”

LOVE THIS little mystery. 

21. Sid watches news. Settles on GALE WEATHERS discussing the rape and murder of Maureen Prescott, wife and mother…

Tatum calls. Gonna be late.

22. NEW PHONE CALL. It’s the man. She calls his bluff. He’s in the house. She blockades herself in her room. [callback to door catching on closet from scene with dad, which is how she blockades herself in]. Billy shows up. Drops cell phone. Cops show up. Killer is gone. 

23. Billy arrested. 

NOTE: Killer gone from move from p. 18-32. Two jump scares in that time.

24. Outside house. We learn Billy is “Hank’s kid.” Tatum shows up. We see she’s Dewey Cop’s sister. News gets there. Sidney hurried away. 

Reporter Gale Weathers just misses Sid and that pisses Gale off. 

25. Billy questioned with his dad, Hank, present.

26. Dewy and Sheriff Burke discuss. Could it have been Billy? Tatum hurries Dewey to go. She does not respect her brother, even when he’s in uniform. 

27. Sid and Tatum wait to be picked up outside station. Gale Weathers Reporter emerges from darkness. 

Tense words b/w Gale and Sid. Gale might be writing a book about Sid’s mom. 

Sid punches Gale.

28. Sid at Tatum’s. Gets a call. It’s the man…

29. Call with man. Threatening.

30. ESTABLISHING shot of town.

31. Sid at table. More info from the news about her mom. Sid fingered the killer with essential testimony.

Dewey reveals Billy is free. He didn’t make the call. 

32. Dewey drops the girls at school. Sid heads towards Gale Weathers. 

33. Sid w/ Gale. Discuss mother. Implies the murders are connected. Gail intrigued. 

34. GHOST FACE at school. Two kids laughing and running away. Is Sid safe there or not? 

JUMP SCARE 3: With first period underway, the halls have cleared. One or two straggling students can be seen rushing to class. [P.56]

Sidney moves quickly down the hall, rounding a corner, running smack into… 

BILLY

They collide hare catching Sid off guard, scaring the life out of her. She falls backwards, but Billy catches her fall.

35. Bill pressures Sid to get over her mom. Compares it to his parents divorce. 

She leaves. He’s pissed at himself. 

36. Sid in bathroom stall. Hear’s girls thinking it was her who killed. 

CREEP SCARE 1 :    Girls leave. Sid is in stall. Then…

Water DRIPS somewhere from a leaky pipe as wind WHISTLES in from the cracked transom above the bathroom door. It sounds almost like a whisper, “Siddneey…”

Sidney spins around. What the… She checks out the bathroom. The doors to the stalls are all closed. She bends down and scans beneath them, looking for feet. No one. Nothing. 

Sidney turns back to the mirror. Suddenly…

MAN 
Siddneeey…

Unmistakable this time. The VOICE strikes Sidney like a nail through the eye. It comes from one of the stalls. She stands thunderstruck, eyeing the stalls thru the mirror…

THE KILLER IS THERE. 

Sidney runs out of bathroom screaming.

36. PRINCIPAL’S OFFICE. Principal expels the two kids who were wearing masks. Sidney rushes in, terrified.

37. LATER. Cops are there. Assume it was not the killer but was more boys teasing her. 

Gale flirts with Dewey.

Mr. Himbry cancels school until further notice.

Stu says “Party at my house tonight.”

38. Principal’s Office: Himbry gets two creepy knocks at his door. Nothing. 

In the hall… Empty.

Himbry gets killed.

39. TATUM’S HOUSE. Discuss if this is the mom’s killer. Try to calm down.

Sid follows Tatum inside the house never seeing the GBOST MASKED FIGURE that stands across the street, under a tree. Bis presence so subtle and unobstrusive you'd have to see this movie a second time to know he was there all along. 

40. STU AND BILLY. Talking about the party that night.;

41. BLOCKBUSTER. Discussion of suspects. Randy suspects Billy. They suspect him. All framed through movies again.

42. DEWEY’S PATROL CAR. Discuss party that night. Town’s under curfew. Dewey doesn’t like party idea. Ghost Face shows up outside the window but they don’t see him.

43. POLICE STATION. Dewey learns the calls came from Sid’s dad’s cell phone.

44. BACK AT MARKET. Ghost figure behind as the girls chat. Dewey arrives. No one sees ghost. 

NOTE: CREEPY PRESENCE DURING MUNDANE SCENE CREATES SUSPENSE.

45. NEWS VAN outside party. Gale plans to record party. Dewey says she can join him on patrol.

46. PARTY. Kids picking scary movie. Gale and Dewey show up. 

47. Tatum in garage.

JUMP SCARE: She finds a button and hits it. BRRRRRMMMM. The garage door starts to rise. Wrong switch. 

JUMP SCARE: Tatum stumbles to the fridge and throws it open. It’s light casts a glow across her face. 

CRASH-BOOM!     

Tatum jumps, spinning around just in time to see a cat escape through a pet door.

Tatum gets locked in the garage. 

GHOST FACE is there. 

She tries to escape through garage door. Get stuck.

He rises the door. 

Snaps her neck.

48. NEWS VAN. Gale enters. She set up the camera. They have a stream of the party now.

49. BEDROOM. Billy with Sid. She’s ready to bone.

DEWEY AND GALE go on walk to check lead.

KIDS get call that Himbry is dead on football field. Rush out to find him.

Randy finds himself alone in living room. 

Ghost face enters bedroom after Sid and Billy are done. 

Billy is stabbed. 

Sidney runs.

50. Dewey and Gale find Sid’s dad’s car. What is he still doing around???

51. Randy in living room. Killer behind him. 

52. Kenny watches Randy on the feed. Goes to help. Gets killed. 

53. Sid in the attic. Escapes. Ghost almost catches her. Intercut with missing Randy and panicked Gail. 

54. Gail tries to escape. Flips van. Sidney tries to escape. Dewey falls to his face at the doorway. Sid locks herself in the jeep. 

Ghost Face has the keys to the van. 

55. Sid radios cops. Ghost Face climbs in the trunk. Sid gets free.

56. Sid gets Dewey’s gone. Randy and Stu emerge. Accuse one another. 

Billy emerges. Sid gives him the gun.

Billy shoots Randy. 

57. They drag Dad into the house. Reveal they killed her mom. Framed the other guy for it. Reveal they learned it all from movies. 

“It’s scarier when there’s no motive, Sid.”

Then the motive is revealed…

“Your slut bag mother was sleeping with my dad and she’s the reason my mom moved out and deserted me.” 

They say they’re gonna kill everyone and frame the dad.

Then…

GALE WEATHERS shows up with the gun. 

Gets knocked out.

But Sid escapes. 

Calls the killers from phone. 

Big fight.

Gale ultimately shoots Billy. 

Sid says she’ll go on a date with Randy [who acknowledges now is not the best moment]